Someone Has To Teach Them
by Pandora North Star
Summary: Because I can't bear to let them go...Without a council who is going to train all the new slayers in the world? The Scooby Gang of course! They are heading to Cleveland it seems...
1. Prologue

Title: Someone Has to Teach Them...  
  
By: PNS*  
  
Summary: Teaching the new Slayers! Keeping Buffy alive!  
  
"What are you going to do now?" Buffy smiled. Before she could answer Willow stepped up to her best friend.  
  
"I have always been a part of this. The fight. And just because there was one end to a beginning doesn't change that fact. There is still evil in the world. Big bad scary evil. The First Evil is only temporarily unemployed and also, this is the only life I know." Buffy turned, looking at her friend thoughtfully. Willow could tell that Buffy had been contemplating hanging up her stake for the last time.  
  
"Someone has to train them," said a young voice, thoughtfully. A familiar voice. A voice that had grown to wise for its years in the past few months. Buffy saw Dawn. Saw Dawn's understanding. She knew Buffy was tired. "But not right now."  
  
"Right now I could use a major shopping spree. I'm not Kendra you know. One outfit won't do." Buffy cracked a smile. Seriousness could only get a person so far. And if life was meant to be serious the powers that be would never have created the platypus.  
  
"First can we get him to a hospital? He's kinda bleeding all over the bus." Andrew thumbed towards Robin, who was looking rather pale for his dark skin.   
  
"Deal." Buffy motioned her friends back towards the bus. Who had she been kidding? Living like a civilian, as her old boyfriend Riley used to say, would be boring. 


	2. Chapter 1

Title: Someone Has to Train Them-Chapter 1  
  
Author: PNS*  
  
"Can I be Head Watcher?"  
  
"You!? Pshh. You're barely a- well you have less sense than Xander." Giles looked down his glasses at Andrew. Xander turned his head around and glared at Giles. "I meant book sense."  
  
"I never was one for the research."  
  
"I am going to be Head Watcher. I'm the only one with experience."  
  
"Experience is overrated." Andrew rolled his eyes. "Can we stop and use the bathroom?"  
  
"No mores stop until Cleveland," Faith reminded Andrew. slight irritation in her voice.  
  
"I don't know why, but the whole Hellmouth in Cleveland didn't surprise me. Is that a bad sign?" Buffy looked to Giles as the bus bounced them upwards.  
  
"Not necessarily, Buffy. I don't think it is a bad sign."  
  
"Other than Cleveland being really lame?" Kennedy had popped her head over the seat and was grimacing.   
  
"I don't think we really have a choice," Willow offered, pulling her favorite lesbian Slayer back into their seat.  
  
"Sunnydale was at least warm and sunny most of the year. It's gonna suck having to train slayers in the snow." Buffy sighed, looking around at her very own army of slayers. Even though they had come into their powers they had a long way to go. She hadn't even had proper training when she had become a Slayer.   
  
She paused for a moment, deep in thought, with all the up and coming Slayers had she just put Angel out of business? Naw. LA was a big city with a lot of problems.  
  
"What are you thinking about, Buff?" Buffy smiled in the direction of her old friend Xander. They were both experiencing the raw loss of someone close and hadn't time to afford to grieve yet.  
  
"That having so many Slayers was going to put Angel out business." She knew Xander would appreciate the comment, considering his apprarent loathing of the souled vampire.   
  
"It really is tough when you are no longer needed to save the world every Tuesday or wednesday or so." Xander smirked as Buffy playfully shoved him.   
  
"Haha. Very funny."  
  
"You should have included a clause that made all capable men Slayers too. That's gender discrimination Buffy."  
  
"Well lucky me, Slaying isn't an organized business anymore."  
  
"No it's not. Not with the Council gone." There had been small beats in the conversation all along the drive across country. Small nuances that they were slowly getting used to in the post Sunnydale world.  
  
"I miss the Council." Leave it to Andrew to be compelled to share every emotion or thought that he experienced."  
  
"You never met a single person from the Council."  
  
"So? They could have trained me to be a Watcher too."  
  
"what's the difference. I'm gonna train you."  
  
"Will you give me a diploma that says I graduated Watcher school?"  
  
"If that will shut you up Andrew, I will."  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"We're almost to Ohio." Willow pointed to a sign as they passed it. 12 miles to Ohio. They grew silent, the reality sinking in. They were moving as a very large and orphaned group to a new town with nothing but the clothing on their backs and an occasional wallet in a pocket.   
  
"I bet I know more about Cleveland than anyone. I watched the Drew Carey show."  
  
"Andrew!" the bus shouted in unison, as it approached the Welcome to Ohio sign. 


	3. Chapter 2

Title: Someone Has to Teach Them-Chapter 2  
  
Author: PNS*  
  
"You think'd we'd have left the cramped quarters behind and here we are again." Xander rapped on the bathroom door to let the person inside know there were other people in existance.  
  
"You know it was all we could afford, Xander." Buffy called from the kitchen. The small house on the outskirts of Cleveland had seemed nice when they first saw it, but loading in all of the people was a different matter.   
  
But on the other hand, the day before when they had arrived in Sunnydale Rona had taken Buffy aside and expressed an interest in returning to her parents. She had explained that now she was a Slayer, and a fairly well trained one, the new ones had to be trained. Within an hour other Slayers had expressed the same interest. Buffy acknowledged them thoughtfully. Not all Slayers lived in Cleveland. It couldn't hurt to begin a worldwide council of Slayers. Because that was the way it should be. Slayers guiding Slayers. Not houghty-toughty British men.   
  
Of course there were a few additions to the Scooby gang that they couldn't shake. It seemed like Faith wasn't eager on returning to jail, and Wood had taken a shining to her. They assumed Kennedy's place in their family, and that of Andrew. He had reminded them how helpless and alone he was so they kept him in pity. Everyone else was returning to where they had come from.  
  
At the moment it was quiet. Kennedy had led the other younger Slayers out for a patrol, (they could no longer be called potentials,) and everyone else was scattered throughout the house. Buffy was in the kitchen with Faith scrubbing the dishes from dinner. Out of the corner of her ey Buffy caught sight of Giles and Wood. They exchanged glances with Faith who dropped her dishrag onto the counter and sidled out of the room. Buffy turned around. She had been waiting for this moment since they had arrived.  
  
"Can we talk with you Buffy?" asked Giles.  
  
"Are you here to apologize?" Buffy responded cooly.   
  
"In our own poor handling way." Wood smiled weakly.   
  
"Apology accepted." Buffy turned back to the sink.   
  
"Do you want to talk about it Buffy?" Buffy could picture Giles pushing his glasses up his nose and wood's hands clapsed behind his back. She knew these men so well.   
  
"No. That's okay. You should go back to your locator spell. Willow might need help." They were locating the potentials in Cleveland before they got their powers so they could help ease the girls into the world of slaying. Buffy smiled at the thought. They would never have to be alone in saving the world. She didn't need to share with them because she had shared with Willow the first night in the house. **********************************************************************  
  
They had gone out onto the small porch in the warm spring air and Buffy had relayed all the events. It felt good to expel the images. The had been haunting her on the long ride across country. Being Willow, she had gone right to the heart of the matter.   
  
"Did you love him?"  
  
"I did." Buffy had sighed. Playing the scene over and over in her mind she had tried thinking of ways she could have conveyed it so he wouldn't have thrown the words back in her face.  
  
"Maybe he knew. But you know Spike, -or knew him. He always had to get the last word in."   
  
"Maybe."   
  
"He knew you did the best you could in loving him."  
  
"I think so." That brought a faint smile to Buffy's lips. If they had nothing else they had that night in each other's arms. To lie together, without kissing, without sex, without words, that had been more powerful than she could convey and she hoped he knew that, wherever he was.  
  
"We'll keep going on Buffy, like we always have." Those were the superficial words Buffy had been dreading. Of course they would go on, but not like always. Anya was gone. Spike was gone. Xander had lost his eye. And hello, Sunnydale was gone. Buffy couldn't imagine losing her whole past like Willow and Xander did. It brought an emptiness to oneself. How do you build bridges to the future without having a foundation of the past?   
  
Willow stood up and stretched, bobbing her red head. "Get some sleep Buffy."  
  
"You too." Buffy stared out into the darkness. The porch light flicked off as Willow entered. She sat alone bathed in moonlight. A shadow approached the porch.  
  
"Buffy?" Spike cocked his head. "Something wrong? Anything I can do?"  
  
"I don't want to talk about it." Buffy turned away from the memory. The shadow sat down next to her and a hand made of air descended upon her shoulder.   
  
"Every night I save you," Buffy murmured to the darkness of this foreign place. 


	4. Chapter 3

Title: Someone Has to Teach Them- Chapter 3  
  
Author: PNS*  
  
"We should just open our own family burger joint." Buffy and Faith raised their eyebrows at Xander's suggestion. "I just mean that if we all end up working at the Cleveland Doublemeat Palace it would be worth our while to open up our own."  
  
"I am not working there ever again." Buffy shuddered. "Besides, someone has to be matriarch of this house."  
  
"Somehow I had Willow pictured for that job." Faith crinkled up her nose as Buffy punched her lightly on the shoulder. "See! Violence!"  
  
"We'll keep the suggestion in mind. Hopefully Giles will be able to find something...And I too make a good mom!"   
  
Buffy wondered if the people in Cleveland would find it suspicious when they tried to apply. Can we contact your last employer? Well,....my last employer sank into the earth. So did the rest of my town. Ok then. What about recommendations? People evacuated and I currently don't know where anyone I ever met is.  
  
"Well flipping burgers is one of the few things I can do with one eye...And type. And I was never one for sitting at a desk," Xander said wryly.   
  
"You lose no respect for that." Buffy and Xander gazed at each other. They were both going through a private grieving that was only pronounced when they acknowledged it to each other.  
  
"We should open a Slayer for hire business. Make people pay to bump their relatives that have been turned." Faith grinned. "Come on, it's a good idea."  
  
"And the police will be on you in seconds."  
  
"So we don't make it legal."  
  
"I'm not a fan of breaking laws unless it's necessary Faith."  
  
"My parents got audited once. It wasn't pretty. And let's not forget Cordelia." There was a moment of silence then everyone burst into laughter. "How is she Faith?" Faith shrugged.   
  
"Good," she said heading out of the room.   
  
"I know these last few days have been hard on you Buffy, is there anything I can do to help?" Everyone was worried for her. Funny, they didn't seem half as worried when it was the end of the world. That wasn't fair though. They hadn't time to worry then.   
  
"Do you dream of her, Xander?"  
  
"Anya? Yeah, sometimes."  
  
"Just wondering."  
  
"Why? Do you dream of Spike? You can talk about it with me. I know I never liked the guy, but he did save our lives in the end and that I won't forget."  
  
"I just wonder why he had to die." Her unlying lament was really, why did he have to die when they were finally becoming something more than enemies or fuck buddies?  
  
"We wondered that about you Buff. Let me suggest not trying to resurrect him." Xander smiled, painfully.   
  
"That won't happen anytime soon." He had his peace. Far be it from her to bring him back from it. Out of them all he was the only one who understood how much she hated being ripped out of heaven.   
  
"Good." Xander wandered out of the room.   
  
"Hey, Goldilocks."   
  
"Not now Spike."  
  
"Why not now? It's a good a time as any. And I'm only your imagination." He smirked. "And don't even tell me this is original. I watched all the WB shows. Alex used to visit Isabel after his death on Roswell."   
  
"So maybe I can't let you go yet." Buffy backed up against the sink. If anyone walked in at that moment they would be doubting her sanity. She doubted it herself, but having him there, even if he was imaginary was better than knowing he was gone for good.   
  
"You have to get back to the real world Buffy. You can't live through these fantasies. I know things are bad right now-"  
  
"Really bad," she interrupted. "We have no money and a dilapidated house full of people who don't have jobs who need me. And I can't do this anymore. It should be over. We saved the world. We gave it heroes."  
  
"Buffy, I've told you before," the figure said sternly, "Life is just this. It's living."  
  
"I don't want to be alone again." The truth. The loneliness. The shadow came closer, brushing by her. Buffy closed her eyes.  
  
"There's someone else here who could use your love. Maybe you haven't noticed yet."  
  
"who?"  
  
"Xander, of course."  
  
"Huh?" Buffy backed up, not sure she understood what her own brain was saying to her.   
  
"Jus think about it." Spike smiled his wily smile. "Later, Slayer." He disappeared, leaving her in the empty room until Dawn came romping in. 


	5. Chapter 4

Someone Has to Teach Them- Chapter 4  
  
"Librarian to the stars!" Giles came skidding to a halt in the small living room. Everyone looked around nervously. Giles never so much as did anything with gusto. It was a reason for alarm.  
  
"Come again?" Someone ventured.  
  
"You are looking at the new curator of written records at the Rock and Roll museum." They all breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"That's cool G-man." Kennedy snickered. She had taken to calling Giles that. He frowned in her direction.  
  
"It is cool. I'll finally be able to teach you children a thing or two about real music."  
  
"You'll never let me live down my teeny bopper phase, will you Giles?" Dawn complained.  
  
"Not until my ears have recovered." Giles smiled. "Did anyone else have any luck?"  
  
"I'm going into the Police Academy." Willow's mouth turned into a little 'o' and she batted Kennedy.  
  
"You didn't tell me that! I love a girl in uniform."  
  
"Me too. I especially like Princess Amidala's outfits." They couldn't expect Andrew to be quiet the entire time so they took his inane comment in stride.  
  
"We tried to suggest that to Buffy. It didn't take." Xander sniggered. It was great to be together with all his friends, laughing like old times, without the pressure of the end of the world.   
  
"You tried to suggest what to me?" Buffy entered the room looking frumpy in a pair of second hand overalls. They had no money for luxuries anymore. And the only things they owned coming into town was the ripped and bloody clothing on their backs.  
  
"Law enforcement."  
  
"Right..." Buffy plopped down on a small spot left on the couch. "So we have a librarian, a police officer, and a burger flipper. That's good. I mean some of us have to stay home and train them." Willow had come up with a list of about a dozen girls in the area who were going to be coming into their slaying powers any day. Now they just had to find them and explain to them what was going on. Judging by the fact that they lived on a hellmouth she figured it would be easier than starting fresh with girls who didn't even have a glimpse of the darkness in this world.  
  
"You think it's better I didn't help," Giles said in a low tone, not wanting to share his and Buffy's private pain with the group.   
  
"For now." Giles had known that this was coming. It had been Buffy who had come up with their final battle plan, Buffy who had saved Spike from his hands. What if he had killed him? Would they all be dead? He didn't want to think about it. "You have a good job. We need the money."  
  
"Speaking of that. I targeted a couple of the girls at school and tried befriending them." To Buffy Dawn had changed the most out of anyone in the days leading up to the final battle and then during it. A little sister no longer she was becoming one of Buffy's most trusted sidekicks and friends. "I think maybe one or two will ever talk to me again."  
  
"Thanks anyway." Buffy looked around the room. Willow and Kennedy, Xander and Dawn, Andrew and Giles,...where were Faith and Wood? She didn't want to know. These were her family members, for good or for bad. These were her allies against the darkness.   
  
"I could go become a substitute teacher. It would be so neat. They would all think I was so cool now...or not." Would Andrew ever grow up? Maybe not. But it was a predictability Buffy took comfort in.  
  
"Try if you want. Xander, do you want to come patrolling with me?" She and Kennedy and Faith were taking turns and it felt nice to have time to sit and watch tv on her nights off. Xander pointed to himself in surprise but then got off the couch. She was going to take gohst Spike's advise. 


	6. Chapter 5

Someone Has to Teach Them- Chapter 5  
  
Author: PNS*  
  
Notes: This chapter begins breaking it up into seperate stories, more episodic. The earlier parts were more establishing. Enjoy!  
  
"So what's up Buff."  
  
"Can't a friend take another friend out for a nighttime patrol for vampires without it being suspicious?"  
  
"Not within our circle."  
  
"I dunno. I've missed you. I haven't really seen you much lately."  
  
"I haven't seen you much lately, kinda because I only can see you when you are on my right side." Buffy made amends and moved to his other side. Then she paused, noticing the edge to his voice. He blamed her for his eye loss. Oh god, she froze.  
  
"Buffy?" Xander turned.  
  
"Do you blame me for you eye, Xander?" Sometimes the best way to get an honest answer is to just put the raw question out there. Xander took a deep breathe.  
  
"I don't mean to, but sometimes, yeah I resent you. Why can't you get hurt? Why do you still look perfect? Why is it always me who gets hurt? Who breaks his arm or loses his eye." Buffy was taken aback. She hadn't guessed how deeply his pain went. "I know I said a long time ago I would stick by you and I did."  
  
"You can be free now, Xander. Nothing is keeping you here. Please. If I make you that upset, then maybe you should." None of their words were in anger, just in pent up frustration and misery. What the hell did imaginary Spike mean by telling her to love Xander? Xander had a deep pent up hatred towards her. Or close to it.   
  
"No, I can't be free, Buffy. I'm in this now and forever." His words were so final they imprinted themselves on Buffy's very soul. How much would he grow to resent her? He seemed to feel her concern in the this spring air. "It was my choice. It has nothing to do with you."  
  
"I admire you, Xander." And that was all she could say.   
  
**********************************************************************  
  
Somewhere on the other side of Cleveland a young woman stepped out of the shadows. She sneered at the other young people around her, they didn't come close to her, the writhing mortal bodies. She knew for some reason she was special. Her senses told her, her body told her, and the male vampire flanking her told her.  
  
She spun around and shoved a stake into his heart, her face morphing in the process. "I told you to get lost." She turned her attention elsewhere, for she could sense another girl nearby, a girl like she had been. Different.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
"Aren't you a little young to be a police officer?" Willow figured the best time to brooch the topic was when Kennedy was spent. She was a tough woman to talk to on her good days and didn't yield easy. It was what made her a good Slayer...and a good lover.  
  
"I thought you were happy for me."  
  
"I am. It's just now you'll be dealing with the bad guys during the day and at night."  
  
"We need the money, Willow." Who was she to argue? Still, she felt uncomfortable with the idea. She pulled Kennedy closer, as if she could keep her there always. There were still moments when she felt guilt for Tara, wondering if she should be thinking about her more, and still more moments grieving the lose of even her memory, her tombstone sucked into the hellmouth along with everything else in Sunnydale. She didn't even have a picture to remember her by. "Is something wrong?" Kennedy pulled her back to the moment of here and now. "You were frowning."  
  
"I miss Sunnydale."  
  
"Well I'll make you forget. Don't worry. You're in safe hands."  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
The moment Faith had met Wood she knew he was not like most of the men who crossed her path, save for Buffy's bunch, which he was part of. But then most of the guys in Buffy's bunch were usually hers in one way or another. This one didn't feel like he belonged to Buffy. Maybe that was what had drawn her to him. There was also the fact that unlike most of the men in her life he hadn't failed her. Not even when she thought he was dying.   
  
But it was all so strange and new. Learning to care and not run away. It had been a slow learning process the past few days. Each day she woke up to find his still sleeping by her side, his dark skin pressed against her own. He was a nice boy. She was afraid one day he would wake up and see who she was. What her past was.  
  
"Morning, Faith." Wood brushed the hair from her face. She smiled.  
  
"Hey." She sat up but he pulled her back by her wrist. "How's the injury doing?" So maybe they hadn't done much since they had arrived, it was another strange thing to Faith.   
  
"Better." He kissed her softly.   
  
"Good. Because we can't decide who's prettier once and for all until we are both in peak condition."  
  
"I am!" 


	7. Chapter 6

Someone Has to Teach Them- Chapter 6  
  
Author: PNS*  
  
The one week anniversary came of being in the house. The newly called Slayers that Buffy had spent a year training had dispersed across the country, some across the world, with specific instructions. One was even in talks with Willow to create a Slayers Webpage, a database of sorts that slayers could use to fight demons or learn new techniques and talk to other slayers all over the world. Giles thought it was a great idea and admitted that he was slowly warming up to computers.  
  
"Here's to us, the people who can't seem to live without each other, literally."At the small gathering Willow held up her glass of grape juice in a toast.  
  
"There's something peculiar but oddly comforting being a house with five women and two other men, one I barely know," Xander said. His humor had grown more subdued since he lost his eye and Anya but by no means had it disappeared. It was more of a loss of edge.   
  
"Hey, we have enough people for Real World!" Dawn seemed excited about this fact. "Well one extra, but close."  
  
"The Real World, Hellmouth Style." Faith agreed. "I tried out for the Boston one, it didn't take. They said I was too young. But only when they saw my birth certificate." Faith smirked at the memory. "This week, on the real world...The witch fights the forces of evil and has trouble with her partner. Cos there always has to be a gay person."  
  
"That's me. Representing the quota." Willow rolled her eyes. Her and Faith had never gotten along very well.   
  
"I'm only saying, Red. It's a fact of MTV."  
  
"I never watched much TV."  
  
"It's one of the few things we were allowed to do in prison."  
  
"Really? They let you watch TV?"  
  
"When we were good little girls. Sometimes they would spank us and send us to bed without supper, if we were bad." Faith became defensive whenever anyone asked her about her time in prison. It was something to endure and forget. Except for the part that she would never do anything to make her go back there. She was a good girl now. A Good girl. Wood put his hand on her shoulder as a sign of support. She slunk below it, still not trusting him completely.  
  
"Now that we are finished with the banal exchange might I suggest dinner?" Buffy threw a well aimed couch pillow at Giles.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
It was late when Buffy returned from patroling. She had gone alone tonight, wanting reprieve from the bustling and cramped house. The world was abuzz around her friends, and she was happy many of them had found jobs. It insured the fact they would be able to keep the house, despite the ridiculously high morgage and interest rate.   
  
she didn't mind being the matriarch of the household, it was a role she had become accustomed to filling over the past two and a half years. From just Dawn to almost thirty people, she had always figured it would be the closest she came to having a family. But now, with so much help, maybe she could. The thought came to her in a quiet moment, softly. But who, and how? As if to answer her question she heard the faintest crying.  
  
She jogged up the stairs and stopped at the landing, keening her ears. The crying seems to be coming from Xander's room. He was one of the few in the house without a roommate, and it was only because Giles refused to share a room with him. Buffy herself was bunking with Dawn. She couldn't very well complain, they shared blood.   
  
She paused outside his door. In all the time she had known him had she ever see him cry? She couldn't remember a time off the top of her head. She had seem him hysterical, and on the verge of tears, but never crying. She hesitated to invade. But wasn't this the perfect opporutunity to see if Spike's ghost had been right? She hadn't thought about Xander in that way for a long time. The timing had never been right for them.  
  
Buffy knocked and then barged in, before he could warn her to stay away. "Xander, it's me."  
  
"Leave," Xander said, shielding his face from her and facing the only window in the tiny room.   
  
"Please. Tell me what's wrong. Xander, I've never seen you cry. And frankly it scares me."  
  
"I guess I'm not perfect," Xander tossed, sarcastically.  
  
"That's not fair."  
  
"of course it isn't. Nothing ever is." Had he lost so much of himself with that one eye? Buffy sad down on the bed next to him. The worn flannel shirt and the musky smell told her it was her Xander, but his actions betrayed him. This place was alien, to them both. Would touching him be a bad idea? Too soon? It was her Xander that she had known for seven years, he had brought her back from the brink of death and she couldn't even bare to touch his arm at that moment.  
  
She brought her knees up to her chest. Wait for him to make the next move. "She's really gone. All it takes is one second. Sunnydale is really gone." Buffy could hear him chicking down the sobs next to her, trying to control his breathing. "I was just starting to like my life without her. I finally had a respectable, well paying job...Buffy, I've lost everything that mattered to me."  
  
"What about your friends? Aren't they what matters more?" It was one thing to say it but in her heart she knew she would hesitate on saving Spike and one of her lesser friends, as she had so chosen with Wood. It sickened her. Xander grunted. At least he knew what she was feeling. It made her feel less guilty. But she knew in the end her friends would win out. They always had. But that moment of hesitation caused her grief.  
  
Xander turned to face her. "They say nothing brings people together like tragedy." He put his hand over hers. "I guess I should tell them to cue up the sappy music."  
  
"I don't know how to comfort you, Xander. You were always better at it than I am." Wasn't it the truth? He had always gotten to the heart of the matter and made her see what she needed to see.   
  
"Then don't. Don't say anything." His words lost some of their edge and Buffy felt some of the chill melting, feeling his true angst. His head bent down closer to hers and she pressed her face up against his and stayed bent, the closeness to each other comfort enough.  
  
Hadn't she been sharing a position similar so recently? It panged her to wish Xander was Spike, but how could Xander possibly understand why she wanted him to be Spike at that moment. Oh well, it didn't matter. Spike was gone. Xander lived. 


End file.
